A prolific researcher, author, and entrepreneur, her work has transformed mental health services and interventions for countless children, teens, young adults, pregnant women, parents of preterms and critically ill children, nurses, and clinicians across the U.S. and globally. Her legacy in advancing evidence-based practice has reshaped healthcare quality, safety, education, policy, and implementation, establishing enduring models, competencies, and textbooks that continue to guide the profession.

Dr. Melnyk serves as CEO & Founder of COPE2THRIVE, LLC, and President and Co-Founder of EBP Solutions, LLC. She served as the nation’s first Chief Wellness Officer (CWO) at a U.S. academic institution, The Ohio State University (OSU), a role that she conceptualized, where she also served as Dean and Professor at OSU College of Nursing. Previously, she served as Dean of Arizona State University’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation, launching first of their kind academic programs and partnerships. Notably, she founded the National Consortium for Building Healthy Academic Communities to improve population health in the nation’s universities. Dr. Melnyk also served on the Department of Health and Human Services’ U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, where she worked with an independent group of national experts to make evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services.

Dr. Melnyk’s Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment (COPE©) CBT-based programs have provided evidence-based treatment and prevention to more than 250,000 children, teens, young adults, and parents of vulnerable children across a variety of settings. She also launched a national mental health promotion campaign, KySS (Keep your children/yourself Safe and Secure), with funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration that prepares providers to address child and adolescent mental health conditions in primary care settings. Her COPE© interventions have helped prevent and reduce depression, anxiety, stress, and suicidal ideation while strengthening coping skills, self-esteem, resilience, and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Implemented in schools, primary care settings with reimbursement, universities, hospitals, and community programs, these evidence-based interventions demonstrate the power of nurse-led innovation to expand access to timely, effective care. Dr. Melnyk is also a national force in clinician well-being and burnout prevention. She sparked a national movement in CWOs at universities and health systems across the U.S., has contributed to the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience as an elected member of NAM, and adapted her COPE© cognitive-behavioral interventions for nurses and the healthcare workforce, entitled MINDBODYSTRONG©, which reduces burnout, depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, and is used by health systems across the U.S.

Dr. Melnyk earned her BSN from West Virginia University, her M.S. in nursing care of children and pediatric nurse practitioner from the University of Pittsburgh, and her PhD from the University of Rochester, where she also completed her post-master’s certificate as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Dr. Melnyk was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2002.